With a long travel day the day before, I think everyone was happy to have a bit of time to sleep in this morning. I guess sleeping in is all relative. Most so us gathered in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Luckily we got there early because it took about an hour to get our order taken and food brought out. The language barrier with the waitress was a bit challenging so a few of us were brought different orders but we all got food! The best find on the menu was the All Day Breakfast. For $1.75 you got coffee, two eggs, toast and a loaf of French bread. Or for $2 you could just have a cup of coffee.
Around 9:30 we loaded up our 5 tuk tuks. Josh and I partnered with Vince and took a ride with Mr. Dong. They told us to spread out our weight evenly so we put Josh and Vince on the back seat and then me facing them. We about popped a wheelie pulling out of Two Dragons.
It is only about a 15 minute ride through town to Angkor Wat, the temples and ruins. Apparently it is cheaper and faster to rent minivans, but I can't imagine that. You'd miss so much culture and experience and moments where you see your life flashing before your eyes. We arrived at the front gates and got our passes. We were told several times not to lose these passes or we would have to pay again. Although Americans think they can talk their way out if anything, such is not the case if you lose our temple pass.
We drove past the hords of people walking p to the main part of Angkor Wat. I mean thousands of people. Now we know who is staying in all those hotels. And most of the people I was seeing were Asian. Not Westerners. As out drivers took us back towards our ruins we came across the infamous location for playing with the monkeys. We hopped out and instantly a young girl appeared selling a green fruit I had never seen and bananas. The first bunch of bananas purchased were instantly snatched by a waiting monkey who jumped on top of a truck with them. We were warned to put away sunglasses, earrings and anything else loose. This sounds dangerous.
We must have spent an hour enticing monkeys to sit on our heads and eat food. I think I'm the only one who didn't. I preferred to take photos. A few baby monkeys were clutching to their mamas and nursing. The whole experience was entertaining, when they were full they simply walked off into the woods to take a nap, I presume.
Our next few stops were to look at ruins back in the jungle. Not too many people were at any of th stops we visited. The entire grounds are massive and it appears that 99% of visitors stay in the main temple and that is all. One cool one we stopped at was called Ghost Gate. Apparently way back when there were two gates for the returning army after battle. One gate for if the won, one if they lost. The gate for losing has since been named Ghost Gate by the Cambodians because they believe the spirits of the fallen soldiers pass through the gate every night. It is a very real superstition and because of that we were the only ones there. Our drivers apparently only come with us and a few of them stayed back.
Around lunch time we headed back to the hotel for lunch and a break.we met back up around 3 to head out for our evening session. I couldn't understand the name of the temple but I'm told it is the second most popular. However, everyone leaves to find a different place to watch sunset. We arrived a little early to go in. As soon as our tuk tuks stopped we were swarmed by local children trying to sell us things. It's overwhelming. Most of the group got back in their tuk tuks and headed up the road to play volleyball.
Vince and I stayed to stick it out. I wanted to see how Vince interacted with the children because I've noticed that they open up to him. Sure enough we got a group of sellers round us immediately. Probably 6 girls ranging in age from 7 to 12 and 3 women. We started talking to them. Learning their names, ages, where they live, go to school, how they learn English, quizzing them on their multiplication tables, teaching them knock knock jokes, you name it. They immediately stopped being robot salesman and turned to people. The children's eyes lit up when they got to talk about school and which friend was the best salesman. It was beautiful to get to see what a gentle people they are and unnerving at what they must do day in and day out to feed their families. And if you are wondering, they don't make the bracelets. They buy them wholesale. They told me. :)
Vince and I spent about half an hour with our new friends and then our old friends returned from volleyball. We headed into the temple. The absolute coolest thing about this temple was the enormous, I mean enormous, tree growing out of it. From the front it looks like its behind the center of the temple ruins. From behind you see it has physically grown over the ruins. Pretty darn cool. We spent a while wandering around until the guards hustled us out.
On the back side our drivers were waiting. Giddy as ever with a tuk tuk bar. They through beers at us and a hackie sack emerged from somewhere. A giant circle formed and we played a humongous game as the sunset until the guards again shooed us. I've kept my soccer skills to myself so I think I surprised a few people with my ability to actually participate.
Although we were exhausted, Vince, Josh and I discussed going to the night market on our ride home. We weren't sure how the whole transport thing worked so we got the okay back at the hotel. Honestly, I would have been fine going to bed but I wanted yo be a good sport so I rallied.
We were dropped off under the glowing neon sign saying "Night Market". The last thing our driver said was be safe. Awesome. We headed down the first alley and I stopped at the first booth where they had some beautiful pashminas. I knew I would for sure see more and was hesitant to buy immediately. But I really loved the scarf for my mom. Josh liked a guys one. I negotiated pretty well and we got them. I'm glad I did because we didn't see any others like that the whole time.
Josh then found a vendor selling stuffed hand puppets and decided the kids must each have one of these. He asked the lady what the hole in the elephant was and she showed him how you put your fingers in to work him. She was asking $5 a piece. Josh was ready to buy with no haggling. Vince stepped in and said "$1 each". The lady came down to $4 a piece and we told Josh we should go to another booth. Nope. He bought them. Later in the night another vendor tried to sell him the same elephant as an iPhone holder (actually took his phone and shoved it in the puppet) and offered for $2.50. Dang!
We moved on to our quest for Buddhas. We found the booth with a Mecca of Buddhas. Vince did his usual where he offers them $1 and ends up paying in the middle. As we were leaving her booth he noticed her reach into an ice cooler and start making a drink. Next thing I know, we are having the shop owners make us iced coffees from their secret stash and are talking about which cultures are the easiest to rip off. It was fascinating to talk to them. And of course Vince then pretended to speak Russian the rest of the night.
We also got Vince a hammock and Josh and I some scarves from the place that was weaving in the back. The one place he couldn't negotiate much because I think the were pretty legit. The scarves are gorgeous and somehow Vince became their personal photographer. They had him taking pictures and then emailing them. That's a first.
And we were super lucky to find a high end art gallery across the street. I'm not sure how much we should have paid. You really never know. They had sandstone hand carves sculptures. We found n elephant with his tusk raised that seemed the perfect piece to remember our trip. The entire thing is covered in hand etchings. They had similar ones, without the etchings and nowhere near as heavy, in the market for much less. But I love ours. We also learned in that gallery that the people here love penis art. Vince picked up a sculpture not knowing what it was and almost lost his mind. I think the lady working there was so embarrassed she had to leave.
We avoided about 10 outdoor foot massage salons, where you can also watch a movie, for a dollar and grabbed a tuk tuk back. Thankfully, he knew our hotel. He asked us for $5. The hotel said it should be $1. He accepted $3. Good thing. Bobby says you can be arrested for not paying a driver. That's all we need.
We grabbed a late dinner and called it a night. 5am start tomorrow!
